Love Me Tender

[Loreigh's POV]

"I can't believe you did that!" I said when I finally got back to my seat. "But, I'm glad you did!" I hugged Frandy tightly and looked at my scarf. In the corner it had my name stitched into it and the date of my birthday. It had also been autographed by Tom. Gah, he's amazing and probably the closest thing to Elvis that I'll ever get.

Tom sang the final song of the night, and the show was over. Afterwards however, he stood around the stage area signing autographs and taking pictures.

Frandy and I waited until the most everyone else had left before we went up to the stage to talk to Tom.

"Hey! It's the birthday girl!" he said when we reached him.

"Hi, Tom. Um, I was just wondering if maybe you'd take a picture with me."

"Of course I will! Get on over here, baby." He said that with his Elvis voice, making the last word sound more like 'behbeh'.

I stood next to Tom and handed Frandy my camera. Tom put his arm around my shoulders and smiled a lopsided grin that anyone would have sworn belonged to Elvis, himself. I, in turn, put my arm around Tom's waist and smiled while Frandy snapped the photo.

Frandy and I traded places and I took a picture of her and Tom.

"Thank you, Tom." I said with a smile.

"You're welcome, honey." He replied, pulling me into a hug.

He hugged Frandy as well and we waved goodbye as we left the room and entered the lobby.

I pulled my keys out of my purse and opened the door that led out into the crisp, night air.
"That was so much fun!" Frandy exclaimed.

"Yeah, it was," I replied, and turning to her said," thank you for that."

"For what?" she asked, curiosity playing on her face.

"For everything. For getting the tickets and for whatever you did to get Tom to have me on stage and sing that song to me. You know that's my favorite song, and I assume that's why he chose to sing that particular one."

"Don't worry about it. You're my best friend and this is your eighteenth birthday. I wanted it to be special."

I put my arm around her shoulders as we continued to make our way to the car, "It was very special."

She smiled and I could tell that she was extremely happy with herself.

[TIME ELAPSE]

"LOREIGH! GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Frandy was screaming from the garage. We were over at her house and she'd been working on her machine all morning. I had stepped inside the house to get a soda when she started screaming at me.

I rolled my eyes and set my drink down on the counter, she didn't like for me to have liquids near her machine. I opened the door to the garage and she was standing in front of the machine with a look on her face that could only be described as pure bliss.

"What?" I asked her.

"I did it."

"Did what?"

"I did it. It's finished."

"Wait... wha- you.. you finished it? It works? You built a working time machine?!"

"Well, of course there's no way to know for sure if it works until it's tested. But, I'm almost certain that it's going to work."

I was feeling a little uneasy about it, the last time she thought she had finished it and she got inside to test it, she didn't go anywhere.

"Are you sure? This isn't like last time is it?"

"No, not at all. I'm 99.99% positive that this is going to work. I just need to test it."

A thousand thoughts swarmed around my head. If she really just finished building this thing, and it works... I could actually get to go see Elvis. In person. ALIVE.

"Let me do it!" I nearly shouted, running towards the machine, "let me test it." and then I added politely, "Please."

"I don't know Loreigh, I don't know if it's safe or not. I don't want you to get hurt."

"It'll be fine. Please, just let me do this. I need this." I was on the verge of begging, but I didn't care. I needed to see if it would work. I needed to see him. There's a reason that I've loved Elvis this long, there's a reason and I need to know. I need to see him.

I looked at her pleadingly, "Please." I whispered again.

"Okay. But, if something goes wrong, I'm pulling you out, no questions asked. Got it?"

I nodded my head as butterflies began to swarm in my belly. All of a sudden I became very nervous and felt a little sick.

"Maybe I should do it tomorrow. After I've had plenty of rest... and if it works, and I do end up going back, I'll need to be wearing clothes from that time period. I don't want to show up in a Blink 182 t-shirt and jeans."

"Yeah, smart thinking." Frandy replied, nodding her head.

"Well, do you want to come over tonight and help me find an outfit? We could go shopping if we can't find anything. OOOH! I know, let's go to my grandmother's house! I'm sure she has lots of clothes from the fifties."

"Okay, yeah. Cool."

I ran back inside the house and found my purse where I'd left it in Frandy's bedroom. I pulled me cell phone from the bag and dialed my grandmother's number.

"Gran gran! Hey, it's Loreigh."

"Hey, sweetie."

"Gran gran, I was wondering if you had any of your clothes from the fifties?"

"Sure, I do, they're in the attic. What for, sweetheart?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story. I just wanted to know if it would be okay if Frandy and I came over and looked at them."

"Of course, it's okay."

"All right, thank you. We'll be over in about fifteen minutes. Is that okay?"

"Sure, sweetheart, see you then."

I hung up the phone after telling my grandmother goodbye.

Frandy and I grabbed our purses and headed out the door.

About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at my grandmother's house. She was sitting on the front porch in her rocking chair, waiting for us to get there.

Frandy and I both greeted her with hugs before she led us inside the house. After declining glasses of sweet tea, Gran gran finally took us up into the attic.

She went over to a box sitting in the middle of the floor with the year 1950s, written in bold black ink on the side of it. My grandmother pulled up a chair while Frandy and I sat on the floor. Gran gran opened the box and we began pulling clothing out.

After throwing aside what seemed like thousands upon thousands of poodle skirts, I reached into the bottom of the box and pulled out the last piece of clothing. I held it up against myself and walked over to the full length mirror that was sitting in the corner. It was a beautiful, black dress with tiny white polka dots. It wrapped around the waist and the skirt fell just below my knee in gentle folds.

"Can I try it on?" I asked my grandmother eagerly.

"Of course."

Frandy and my grandmother turned their backs while I put the dress on. Walking back over to the mirror, I told them they could turn back around. The dress fit me perfectly, hugging all the right places.

"Wow." Frandy and Gran gran said at the same time.

They walked up behind me and suddenly there were three figures staring back at me from the mirror.

"Can I keep it?"

"Sweetheart, this dress was made for you. Take it."

"Thank you, Gran gran." I said as I gave her a hug. She smiled sweetly and she took Frandy back downstairs while I changed back into my regular clothes.

Before changing, I looked at myself in the mirror one more time.

Please let this work.